Drawing a line under 2025

As 2025 draws to a close, I feel I need to draw a line under the year and give it an official end. It has been a tumultuous year, largely as a result of personal decisions I made and ‘unmade’. As so many of you have been a part of this rollercoaster, I know that it has taken its toll on you but I want to thank you for respecting my wishes and supporting me in the many different ways you have.

It began with my embarking on a VSED (voluntarily stopping eating and drinking) which was the physical manifestation of the end-of-life decision which I had made and shared with all. Whilst most people ‘girded their loins’ for this process, some of you decided that I might have been making an unwise decision and implored me to stop. After more than four weeks, I did and I need to share with you why I made the decision to stop.

Long time friends in the UK were experiencing life-changing developments and I began to realise that there was still a little more that I could do to help them adapt to those developments. And so it has come to be. They have made the decision to move out of the UK and return to South Africa, resettling in the Western Cape. Over this year, I have been able to act as a sounding board, help with research and look at their various options and, finally, support them in taking this huge step. March 2026 will see them move into their new home after more than 30 years living in England.

Despite being in their sixties and seventies, other friends in Durban, South Africa were still gainfully employed but beginning to consider what their ‘retirement’ might be like when they do stop working. In the meantime, they were spending some time in their ancestral home on Ithaca in Greece and I was grateful and fortunate to be invited to visit on two occasions. Although I did not travel this year to the UK, Greece or even South Africa, I have been in constant contact with all to be there for them.

I only have one cousin in Durban who I am still in contact with and starting in 2024, we began an earnest programme of searching for a property in Durban which she could purchase, putting an end to their paying rent and not knowing how secure their future might be. After a long and challenging search we found one, they bought it and they moved in. My cousin was extremely close to my mother and I have been so grateful and blessed to see her and her daughter move into their ‘own home’. These folk were amongst the people who made me change my mind but were by no means the only ones.

But no sooner had the decision to stop VSED been made, than I was hospitalised and diagnosed with late stage colon cancer. I did not want to embark on chemo or radiotherapy so I accepted surgery and colon removal as the only option. I did consider refusing surgery as my diagnosis would permit me to apply for assisted dying in NZ given I had a ‘terminal’ illness. But I couldn’t do this, could I – having stopped the VSED? The operation was successfully conducted and I was introduced to ‘Stubby and Till’ – my stoma and colostomy bag.

In December 2025 I went back into hospital to have the stoma closed and my digestive/excretory systems rejoined. Not one of my finest recoveries but I made it and although bag-free, I have much loose stool to look forward to in the coming months. But I was determined to have the ‘reversal’ and I am most grateful for the amazing surgical team, under the leadership of Dr Sze-Lin Peng, who looked after me brilliantly right across the year and both operations.

And so now, I can close 2025’s chapter and say, not without a little hint of hopefulness, that my medical adventures are now done. But the outlook for 2026 does not look very bright.

The conflicts in Gaza and the Middle East; Ukraine vs Russia; the disastrous military junta in Myanmar; the famine, fighting and fear which grips the Sahel from the Atlantic to the Red Sea; all sorrily man-made. Add to this the tens of millions of displaced people who risk their lives to cross jungles, deserts and oceans to find peace and solace.

Now throw in the threat—and I do not use that word lightly—of technology and AI/AGI and the world is a very unhappy place at present. Levels of uncertainty are high and it is going to take incredible diplomacy, compassion and sensibility to heal the world.

Whilst we cannot predict what 2026 will bring, I pray that it brings you joy, health and happiness.

(Image created using ChatGPT)